


Getting to Know You

by pretzel_logic



Series: Coldflash week prompted [1]
Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: M/M, bartender Allen, cause it is so popular an idea, that barry from 2024 stuck in 2001 idea, timetravel
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-14
Updated: 2015-09-14
Packaged: 2018-04-20 17:12:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 758
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4795598
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pretzel_logic/pseuds/pretzel_logic
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Len notices the new bartender checking him out... 'Allen' is not prepared to meet Leonard Snart.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Getting to Know You

Len and Mick had barely settled down at a table when Len sensed someone watching him. As unobtrusively as possible he scanned the bar until he found the source, the new bartender. Older than Len by a few years, muscled but still slim, runner body type. Just Len's type and he could appreciate the staring if it did not look like the man was discovering he was not straight for the first time.

Still, no reason not to at least try making a pass. Mick noticed his distraction and laughed when he realized what, or rather who, had caught Len's gaze. "Good luck, buddy."

With a smile that was more of a smirk, Len approached the bar. "See something you like?"

The question seemed to finally startle the bartender out of his staring and he started to blush, all the way to his ears and down his neck, how cute. "Oh! Sorry. Ah- there's no good way for me to answer that. Sorry."

Len laughed despite himself, he had not expected the man to be so... sincere. It was a strangely attractive attitude for a man that appeared to be in his mid-thirties. "Why is there no good answer? I'm sure if you took a moment to _cool_ down you'd find one."

The bartender gave him a disbelieving look, like he simply could not comprehend Len before laughing. "Did you really just- wow. I was not expecting this," the man seemed to say more to himself than Len, rubbing nervously at his neck. Then he seemed to abandon that nervous tick in favor of rubbing his fingers or rather the ring on his _ring finger_.

"Oh," Len murmured in disappointment. Mick might not have trouble sleeping with a married woman but Len could never say the same about a married man. The idea of being a home-wrecker always bothered him too much to try.

"Yeah, sorry. Again. Nothing against you, just, you caught me off-guard and- and I'm not ready to let her go," the man admitted, perhaps more than he should. His words certainly piqued Len's interest and gave him some hope the encounter was not a complete waste.

"Recent divorce?" It would make sense. Bisexual man starting to move on from a marriage and not quite ready to let the ex-wife go.

The smile he got in return was more than a little forced and pained. "Wish things were that easy. Anyways, I'm Allen and obviously tonight's bartender. Anything I can get you?"

The topic change was certainly abrupt but Len could not fault the man for not wanting to discuss a painful topic. Maybe another time he could see if Allen was interested in more than his drink order. "Len and two beers."

~*~

 _Oh god, I thought the night would never end_. Barry thought with relief as he helped close the place down. Being stuck in the past was strange enough but meeting Leonard Snart, the future _Captain Cold_ , had made things stranger. He had not recognized him at first, Cold was so _young_ , younger than Barry was now anyways and wasn't that just mind-screwing. It was more than just age though, Cold was, for lack of a better word, _colder_ in the future. More emotionally closed off despite his dry wit and puns - and those weren't just part of Snart's Cold persona, weird.

Barry knew from facing off against Cold for years and his criminal record, not to mention everything Joe told him, that the man had led a hard life. Seeing - What? Twenty-eight? _God_ \- twenty-eight year old Snart and how different he was from his fifty-three year old self really brought the facts home to Barry.

Barry did not want to learn more about the Rogues. He had a hard enough time facing them as it was, knowing circumstances more than anything had turned them into the criminals he regularly fought.

A laugh escaped Barry before he could stop it, at a sudden thought. "I owe Cisco and Iris so much money," he murmured to himself in good humor. Cisco had gambled Snart liked puns even before he became Cold and Iris always insisted Cold was doing the super-villain equivalent of pulling Barry's 'pigtails'. Barry had thought it was all part of Cold's 'game' and Iris was reading too much into Snart's obsession with the Flash.

He officially knew way too much about Captain Cold. When he got back, if he got back, to his proper time he was never going to be able to look at the man the same way again.

**Author's Note:**

> On Tumblr I had this time travel idea of 2024!Barry getting stuck in the past and people loved it. So for coldflash week I wrote a little something for that idea.


End file.
